Existing EGMs are flexible, and may operate in a variety of modes. For example, some EGMs may play any of a number of available game themes, or with different denominations, or with different number of pay lines, etc. In addition, external operational aspects of an EGM may also be adjusted, such as the volume of the sound, etc. These options are specified by configuring the EGM, and the configuration of the EGM is performed by providing data representing the configuration options to the EGM. This may be done through the EGM itself presenting a user interface, and more usually a graphical user interface (GUI), for the user to set, review and revise configuration options, or through attaching an external device to the EGM, such as a laptop computer or handheld personal digital assistant (PDA) device, and interacting with the EGM using that device to set, review and revise configuration options.
It is also known to arrange EGMs in a network including other EGMs and one, or typically more than one, central servers. In existing arrangements, current configuration options of the respective EGMs may be read by a central server, and may also be set and revised from that central server. Typically, an employee manually prepares a set of changes for one or more EGMs, termed a job. This job is reviewed and approved by one or more other employees. If approved, this set of changes is supplied to the central server, which prepares data representing the desired change in configuration options of the EGMs. At the appropriate time, data is transferred among the EGMs and the central server, updating the EGM configuration options as desired.
EGMs may also participate in known progressive jackpot award systems. Such systems are controlled by a progressive controller, which is one of the central servers in the network. The progressive controller is also flexible and may have different options, such as which EGMs are participating in the progressive jackpot award game, how much of each wager on the EGMs is set aside to increase the progressive jackpot, how much of each wager on the EGMs is set aside to for reseeding the progressive jackpot when that award is won by a player, etc. As with EGMs, data representing the progressive controller options may be entered, reviewed and updated through the progressive controller itself presenting a GUI for the user to set configuration options, or through attaching an external device to the progressive controller.
The configuration of both the progressive controller and the EGMs participating in the progressive jackpot award game affect the operation of the progressive jackpot award game. Properly configuring EGMs participating in a progressive jackpot award system is very important. This is especially true as progressive jackpot award systems become more complicated, and EGMs become more flexible. For example, some progressive jackpot award systems have been designed to operate with a set of EGMs concurrently configured to present respectively different game titles, paytables, and denominations. An error in configuring such EGMs may lead to incorrect progressive payout amounts and frequencies at the EGMs.
However, at present, the respective EGMs participating in progressive jackpot award systems are manually configured, either at the EGM itself, or remotely from a central server (typically not the progressive controller) as described above. This can lead to errors in configuration and take hours for the operator to configure and verify. In addition, manual configuration of EGMs in a progressive jackpot award system is subject to an operator cheating by intentionally misconfiguring EGMs.
A system for ensuring that EGMs participating in a progressive jackpot award system are properly configured is desirable. It is further desirable that the configuration is performed in a manner which lessens the possibility of operator error or cheating, and minimizes the time required to configure the EGMs.